Save Money On Your Wedding Cake

Good Ways (and Really Bad Ways) to Save Money on Your Wedding Cake by today’s guest blogger, Elin Coats, from FavorIdeas.

Remember that time when you got your wings and became a clever Internet shopper?  When you learned how to hunt for coupons, comparison shop, and tap Amazon for honest reviews?

Well, you have to go through the same process all over again to plan your wedding but this time you have to do it practically overnight!

Getting your cake for a frugal-friendly price takes some doing.  Think about it: wedding cakes can be wildly elaborate, even byzantine.  They take hours of skilled work.  Sometimes, they involve not only a master baker but a slew of assistants.  Not to mention some pricey specialty equipment, food dyes and tools.  Wedding cakes are labor-intensive and costly, but they’re also deeply symbolic and sometimes, one of the event’s biggest focal points … after the bride, of course!

So, brides can get into tricky places trying to afford them but no worries.  Here’s what not to do … and how to get this enormous line item stuffed back into your budget.

Bad Ways Get a Cheap Wedding Cake

Don’t let Aunt Tish bake your cake “as a wedding present.”  Not unless you really don’t care how the cake comes out, or you’ve actually seen Aunt Tish assemble and transport a few zillion-tier cakes in the past.  Your relationship with Aunt Tish is far too important to jeopardize over some toppled or saggy pastry.

Don’t give a Martha cake to the grocery store.  You know, those centerfold cakes that in real life would run you $500-1000 and up on a good day?  No matter what the grocery says, they cannot do it.  That untrained or inexperienced person behind the counter? They can’t reproduce that colossus, that a specialty Soho patisserie assembled over the space of a week with a staff of 12.

In fact, to ensure your expectations are sane, be sure to browse actual photos of the staff’s work so you don’t get confused by the pretty confections in the catalogs.  Chances are, they won’t resemble each other, at all.

Best Ways to Get a Cheap Wedding Cake

Keep it Simple.  There’s nothing more lovely or elegant than a simple white cake topped with real flowers.  If you get your tiered cake from the grocery, then top it yourself with a few luxurious blooms (make sure they’re organic, not
sprayed).  If you want, add a satin ribbon around the layers.  Trust me, this will be ten times lovelier than a more “ambitious” cake with flawed execution, and it will shine in your pics forever after.   In fact, this is exactly what pro wedding planners do when confronted with a last-second cake disaster.

Bag a Home Baker.   The pros with shops must pay for their time, space and staff but you can find some bargains by tapping home bakers who still work out of their kitchen.  Potential pitfalls?  Asking for more than they can deliver, or not getting references.  You don’t want to get stuck with a flake who “forgets” your date, or who doesn’t know how a buttercream concoction behaves on a hot day.

So, be sure your secret find has a portfolio to browse, and good word of mouth.  Then, don’t order anything more elaborate than they’ve already done, and you should be good to go.  Enjoy your sweet bargain!

Elin Coats writes for FavorIdeas, home of some of the most popular favors on the web.  Need a thoughtful bridesmaid gift?  Stop by for personalized tote bags.